Sectoral Patterns of R&D in the Age of Open Innovation

The ability to successfully perform R&D still is one of the company's top innovation strengths (Acs & Audretsch, 1988; Mairesse & Mohnen, 2004). As a result, R&D activities continue to be an important object for research. Business R&D spending, which accounts for a significant share of economically impactful R&D, serves as the main driver of technological growth (García-Quevedo et al., 2014). This study focuses on the business R&D practices in the Russian context. Starting with the role of business R&D in innovation systems, there is a deep analysis of the major determinants of firms’ engagement in R&D. These determinants are described from the perspective of the comparison of patterns in leading and catching-up countries and also of the specificity of Russian context of business R&D. Finally, the attention paid to the transformations of business R&D in the framework of open innovation conception. The theoretical part of this research is aimed at studying research in the field of R&D performance in terms of its role in systems of innovation and studying the changings in R&D practices in the age of open innovation, starting with the operationalization of the very concept of open innovation. Through examining a range of sources, the critical role of business research and development in corporate growth has been determined. Although many inventions might be the result of serendipity or knowledge gathered outside of structured R&D, businesses have also invested in research to accelerate the development of new products and processes (Arora et al., 2018). From the perspective of companies’ R&D strategies, there are plenty internal and external factors influencing their selection. These may be either various effects of ownership structure (e.g., Barbosa & Faria, 2011; Baysinger et al., 1991; Bushee, 1998; Daily & Dalton, 1992; Zahra, 1996), or legal protection (Lopez Iturriaga & López‐Millán, 2017), or corporate financial policy and firms’ profitability (Bah & Dumontier, 2001). Authors also explain firms’ engagement in R&D activities by the facts that it helps to develop new product categories and bring innovation to market, to improve overall business processes, to increase company’s productivity, to gain a competitive edge and thereof to attract more investors which leads to future mergers and buyouts (Pipette & Chart, 2021). Empirical part implies Heckman probit selection model in order to study business R&D strategies in Russian manufacturing companies. Empirical analysis allowed to identify the effects of firms’ engagement in R&D activities. Besides, it was revealed the determinants of companies’ decisions to involve in open practice over research in terms of established partnerships with external organizations such as enterprises belonging to firms’ business group, suppliers, enterprises, operating in the same sector, competitors, scientific organizations, universities. consulting firms, or engineering companies. There is a statistically significant positive effect of government support programs to the willingness to cooperate in R&D with the various organizations. Additionally, firms’ presented on the foreign markets are more likely to partner with other organizations in research activities. At the same time, it is evident that firms aimed at releasing standardized products and at ensuring high quality more likely not to cooperate with organizations in their research. The firm’s size does not have a significant effect on the firm’s cooperation strategies. The specifics of R&D objectives also does not have significant effect. In terms of firms’ decisions to conduct R&D, public support programs have a positive significant effect. At the same time, there is no significant effect of the firm’s size and its belonging to the high-tech sector on the probability of firm to involve in R&D practices.